Trial Without Retribution
by Rasputin Zero
Summary: Dib takes the fight to the enemy, but does he really exist?


Trial without Retribution  
  
Part One: The Crime  
  
The lawn gnomes closed on him, but he was prepared. With one long sweep their heads were knocked clean off their fake porcelain bodies. They fell over, leaving in the middle Dib, his hand holding on to a baseball bat with a long, serrated spike sticking out of it. He was breathing heavily, his eyes full of hatred and malice. He kicked down the door to Zim's base with as much force as he could muster. On cue, Zim's robo-parents appeared and recited their "welcome home, son" routine without any sign of originality. Dib was not in the attitude for pleasantries. He first swung the bat at the robo-mom, piercing its belly and leaving it motionless, ready for Dib to pull the spike upwards through the robot's fake, synthesised chest. He left the robo-mom struggling on the floor and turned his attention to the robo-dad, seemingly retreating despite having no perceptible life to save. Dib managed to pierce the android in its side, pinning it to the wall. Dib let the malfunctioning automaton fall backwards, so letting him swing the bat with full force towards its head, smashing it into its component parts.  
  
"I'VE COME FOR YOU, ZIM!!" screamed Dib, with as much foreboding as he could suggest "I'm tired of just WATCHING you all the time! I'LL EXPOSE YOU, YOU…ALIEN…PERSON, YOU! (Oh god, that was lame)" Dib recovered his composure enough to notice the appearance of Gir, still in dog costume, waddling across what could laughingly be called 'the lounge'.  
  
"Uh…master told me to tell you that…he don't like you!" said Gir, rather sheepishly, "He told me to stop you sooo…I'll sing disco tunes 'till your head explodey! That happens to me sometimes…"  
  
"HAH! Nice try Zim!" Dib took aim with the bat and hit Gir with such force that the robot was thrown clear out of his costume. Dib, pulling few punches, finished the unequal fight with a giant spike through Gir's artificial cranium, "but not even your robot slaves can save you now!"  
  
Dib stuck a strange, glowing object into the carpet. The object let out a blue, translucent wave that seemed to knock out all power. "That was an electro-magnetic pulse, Zim! Your base's useless now! And so's your pak! Give up already!" Dib turned to hear a sound and, almost on cue, a section in the wall opened to reveal a manual passageway into the base below. Zim appeared in the doorway, trying to appear graceful even in defeat.  
  
"I'm sorry to disappoint you, human stink beast, but I surrender to no one! NO OOOONE! …Really," Zim was still boisterous and proud, despite there being nothing left for him to fight with "And when my revenge has manifested I can promise a slow, painful and merciless DOOM for you, Dib-human. PREPARE TO FACE MY WRATH!"  
  
"Uh…Zim? You've lost. Can't you at least accept that you're NOT winning? I mean, you have no weapons, no tools, no base, and here I am standing in front of you with a baseball bat that I WILL USE if you do anything dodgy," Dib explained, "I am here to finally expose you Zim, and my dad wants his EMP-capable toothpick back soon, so I can't be long."  
  
Dib pushed Zim back down the staircase leading to his underground base. There, Dib managed to corner Zim and take off his disguise, first his wig, then his lenses. Dib had some trouble getting them off, as he really needed to dig in to get them out. Almost as an afterthought, Dib hit Zim and left him cowering in a corner of his high-tech secret fortress.  
  
"I've called the police, they'll be here any moment. They'll arrive to find a high-tech base, plans for world domination, and an alien cowering in a corner yelling insults at people," Dib extrapolated, "I'll be hailed as a hero! I'll finally have something notable on my CV! All those people that 'kept calling me crazy will be lining up, BEGGING me for forgiveness. MWAHAHAHAHAAAAA!!!"  
  
Dib turned to leave but suddenly remembered something. He turned back to pick up the lenses and wig and stuffed them in his pockets. He was just leaving when he heard Zim whimpering. It was an odd whimpering. It wasn't the whimpering of a crazed egomaniac but rather one of a small child. It disturbed Dib somehow.  
  
"Why did you do this?" whimpered Zim pathetically "What did I ever do to you?"  
  
"Oh come on! Do you have selected memory or something!?" retorted Dib angrily, "I would've thought you could've come up with something more convincing than THAT!" Dib once again turned to leave, leaving the house at the same moment as several cop cars skidded to a halt in front of the base. Dib was overjoyed at the response.  
  
"I have exposed the alien invasion! WORSHIP MEEE!" Dib said with a look of ecstatic glee on his face. A doughnut-chomping badge climbed out of one of the cars and looked at Dib, first with an expression of incomprehension, contorting later into something looking like shock. He looked behind Dib at the house and the shock factor increased so much that he dropped his doughnut.  
  
"ARREST THAT SON OF A BITCH!!" the officer shrieked at the top of his lungs. A battalion of police promptly lunged towards Dib. Dib's look of ecstatic glee quickly gave way to confusion and fear as he was manhandled by Earth's not-so-finest.  
  
"But! LOOK AT THE BASE! THE BAAASE!" Dib pleaded as the cops placed hand-cuffs on him and stuffed him into the car, "WHAT HAVE I DONE TO DESERVE THIS!?"  
  
"I don't know," explained one of the officers, "but when we find out, you're going away for a looong time, little boy." Dib could only watch as the police began nearing the remains of Zim's base, some on the verge of throwing up. The car started to speed away towards the local precinct. Dib took one long look, then just stared straight ahead at the cops in the front seat, too confused to actually ask what was going on. Then he heard Zim's voice clear as daylight:  
  
"Looks like my revenge is starting to manifest, Dib." Dib jerked towards the direction of the voice, but found no one else in the back of the squad car.  
  
Part Two: The Motive  
  
Dib was thrown into one of the precinct's dank cells. Dib could only look on in silent incomprehension as the cell door was closed in front of him. The previous half-hour had been full of angry glares and random shouting and constant calls for him to 'clean himself off'. Why did they keep doing that? He just wished there was someone to help him.  
  
Dib was cajoled into thinking back. Back to when he had a mother. When dad wasn't around, i.e. his entire life, it was always his mom who took care of him. His magical, beautiful mom. He spent all his time with her, played with her, learned with her. All he could remember was her happy, smiling face. Then she left. And never came back. His dad came in abruptly, seemingly distraught, Dib asked where mom was, dad said she 'went away', and retreated to his lab, burying himself in his work. He couldn't understand, he vowed to get her back.  
  
"Confusing isn't it?" said the voice again. Dib spun around to find Zim, sans disguise sitting with a smug look on his face on the cell's single bunk, "All this and you haven't even suspected what might be going on. Oh, my vengeance is juicy, IS IT NOT!?"  
  
"I don't know how you did it Zim!" accused Dib, "but, SOMEHOW, you managed to gain control of the police force!" It was the only thing that made sense. Why else would they ignore the base and arrest him? That perhaps even explained why the police were so distraught at the sight of Zim's base. But how did Zim manage to figure it out? Zim wasn't really a 'gradual undermining' kinda megalomaniac.  
  
"Poor, poor stink beast. It's not as simple as THAT I'm afraid," gloated Zim, "I can't explain it all to you right now, but I'm sure you'll find out soon enough. MY VENGEANCE CONTINUES!"  
  
"Great, he's talking to himself again," said another voice. Dib spun around towards the detective the voice belonged to, then back to Zim, who had mysteriously gone. The detective was, like most detectives, extremely bored with life. "Look kid, I don't have the patience or the energy to continue with this for too long. I just want answers."  
  
"Whatever he's telling you, don't believe him!" Dib pleaded, "He's an alien!" The officer was left stunned.  
  
"Huh, that actually answered some of them," said the officer, taking out a series of papers, "at 11:21 today neighbours reported a kid with an enormous head, that's you I suppose, breaking lawn gnomes on #21 Groorlag Street's front lawn, then breaking into the house with the aid of a modified baseball bat."  
  
"Yes, but that house was a secret base for an alien trying to take over the planet!" explained Dib, "his name's Zim, he goes to my local skool, I've thwarted many of his plans PERSONALLY. No one believes me, but you've GOT to! JUST CHECK OUT THE ADDRESS!! ZIM WAS HERE JUST A MOMENT AGO!! You can still catch him!"  
  
"Uh huh. Officers investigated the address after a phone call from a certain 'Dib', that's you again," the officer painstakingly explained, "they found two people murdered, a dog with his insides splattered across the floor, and a small boy who identified himself as 'Zim' with…his scalp removed and the…eyes…torn out…of his sockets."  
  
Dib started to get a queasy feeling at this news. But that feeling quickly dissipated when he saw Zim, clearly still intact, walking behind the detective with a big grin on his face.  
  
"No, he's not! He's right there!" Dib shouted, as Zim was busy pulling faces and pointing mockingly at the detective as he only gazed pitifully at Dib; Dib carried on regardless, "Look!"  
  
"You don't believe me? Explain that to the kid who's been left blind because of you." Dib was still pointing at Zim, despite the detective's complete denial of his existence, when another person entered the scene. He was wearing a T-shirt and shorts, and his skin was green, but in a way that suggested that it was still 'human' in a way. His back was turned, and he was feeling his way across the wall. His hair was torn, with a large, bleeding bald patch on his head. Dib was looking in amazement. Zim was chuckling to himself.  
  
"Zim?" asked Dib, with a growing sense of dread. The child turned towards the voice to reveal the front of his head, but where his eyes should have been there was nothing but empty holes. He was without ears or a nose either, but there were definable bumps where they should've been. Dib was horrified.  
  
"Why?" the child asked, on the verge of tears despite the recent lack of tear ducts, "why did you do this to me? To Gir? To mom? To dad?" Dib was on the verge of tears himself, the detective was seemingly immune to emotion, Zim was on the floor laughing his face off.  
  
"But…but…" Dib stuttered, "I SAW you without your disguise! I kept your wig and lenses for…" Dib stopped, overcome with dread. He felt into his pockets. In his left pocket he could feel clumps of hair, in his right he could feel…he could feel two squidgy balls. He looked down at himself. He was covered in blood. Up to his neck, his clothes were soaked in crimson, stinking of copper. Dib was beginning to break down, barely comprehending what he had done, for what reasons. His entire system was overloaded by grief. But it was soon replaced by anger.  
  
"OK! JOKE'S OVER ZIM!!" Dib shrieked, throwing himself at the bars in front of Zim, who was cracking up in laughter, "I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU DID! BUT IT'S NOT FUNNY!! STOP IT!! STOP IT NOOOOWWW!!!! I NEVER DESERVED THIS!! I NEVER DESERVED ANYTHING YOU DID TO ME!! AND…NEITHER…DID…MOM!!" The green child hid behind the detective, his face contorted in fear. The detective, meanwhile, started shouting for the 'crazy boys' to come. Soon, men in white coats had run down the corridor and entered the cell, stuffing Dib into a straight jacket and dragging him out of the precinct, still screaming expletives at Zim. Zim just stood there, recovering from his laughter.  
  
"I didn't realise I was DOING anything," said Zim, before Dib left the corridor.  
  
Part Three: The Indictment  
  
"AND DON'T THINK YOU'RE GOING TO ESCAPE HIM AS WELL! HE CONTROLS EVERYTHING AND EVERYONE! HE'S CONDUCTING A CONSPIRACY AGAINST ME! I tried to warn you about him y'know, no one believed me. AND LOOK AT THE RESULT! YOU DO WHAT HE WANTS YOU TO DO! SAYS WHAT HE WANTS YOU TO SAY! LISTEN TO ME! HEAR ME! HEAR ME YOU FUCKS!!"  
  
Dib had been screaming like this for the past hour. Surrounded by padded walls. Oh, these weren't REAL padded walls of course, just an illusion created by Zim. He has done this ort of thing before, and before it was over nothing but a freaking MUFFIN! Somehow he had drawn him into his base and surrounded him by this fantasy nightmare world. Dib knew this.  
  
"You have to be SO certain about everything don't you?" said Zim. Wait a minute, 'said ZIM'!? And, lo and behold, there Zim was, standing triumphantly in a corner of the cell. Dib was certain what this meant.  
  
"You're not part of this are you?" Dib suspected, "You're the only part of this whole charade that's actually real aren't you!?"  
  
"Oh no. In fact, quite the opposite," Zim said, only confusing Dib more, "I'm surprised it's taking you this long to figure it out, you're normally so smart on these things. Of course, I'm sure a lot of that massive swollen head is dedicated towards me." Dib could not accept this. How could he? He had lived through so much, seen so much, none of that could be fake, could it?  
  
"But…why?" Dib squealed  
  
"Why are you so interested in aliens, huh?" asked Zim. Dib thought back to his promise. He remembered all the early attempts to find out where mom was. He found out about aliens. About the paranormal. He became obsessed with it. But all his searches proved fruitless. Then Gaz told him the truth. She just told him straight out, 'mom's dead Dib, get over it'. He cried. He had cried all night, and in the end couldn't accept it. Whenever he searched for aliens, he was always subconsciously searching for mom. But no one would support him. Not his morbid sister, not his absent father. He alienated whatever friends he had with his obsession. He was alone. Then suddenly, all his dreams were answered. A kid with a weird skin condition appeared in class. All his hopes, and dreams, and nightmares were encapsulated in that one kid, who turned out to be an invader from an insidious space empire. Conducting experiments in an underground base. Where he may find mom.  
  
"It almost seemed too convenient didn't it?" said Zim.  
  
"You can't expect me to believe that the last year has been nothing but a lie!?" accused Dib, not accepting what he was hearing, "I KNOW mom's dead."  
  
"No you didn't, and look what happened because of it," requested Zim. Dib started receiving vague fragments of memory. Fragments that he never knew existed. Fragments of himself, smashing up inanimate lawn gnomes. Breaking down a door to reveal not grinning automatons, but accusing adults screaming 'get off my lawn'. Soon they were screaming a completely different scream, one of terror. He eviscerated the woman, blood cascading out of her chest. The man lasted little longer, retreating backwards, but still falling victim to that spike on the end of his baseball bat. As he lost consciousness, he fell to the floor, only to have his smashed into the carpet by the merciless swing of the bat. A small dog comes forth, growling and barking and begging him to stop in it's own, unsophisticated language. But the judgement of the bat was merciless. The dog was left with its life beaten out of it, the spike left embedded in its motionless skull. He heard a whimper, and saw a green child, trying to hide behind a door in a corner.  
  
"STOP!!" pleaded Dib, "THIS DIDN'T HAPPEN!!"  
  
"All I'm giving you is the truth, diseased earthenoid," stated Zim. Dib was forced to remember more. He planted a glowing device into the carpet that blew all the lights. He walked over to the child, ranting as he went, and pushed him into the dark, dank cellar beneath. He pinned him to the cold, damp wall, oblivious to his pleas. He grabbed on to his hair and pulled, leaving his scalp a bleeding wreak. He then reached into the boy's eye sockets and pulled his retinas clean out of his head. He left the child a bleeding, whimpering victim, stopping only for his grisly trophies, the hair and eyes he pulled out of the boy. Reacting in disgust to his pathetic pleas, 'why did you do this? What did I ever do to you?'  
  
"Stopitstopitstopit" Dib pleaded desperately, "This wasn't me. It's something you made up. You're trying to make me go insane. IT WON'T WORK!"  
  
"I don't need to TRY to make you go insane," reminded Zim, "you're doing a decent enough job of it yourself." Dib started to wonder, what if he's right? Maybe he was sick. If he just accepted what came, he could reconcile himself with society. It would do him no good to just keep shouting at shadows. If he accepted his fate, he could recover.  
  
"NO!!" Dib decided, "I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE DOING ZIM!! YOU'RE TRYING TO GET ME STUCK HERE SO YOU CAN TAKE OVER THE EARTH!! WELL IT WON'T WORK!! I'LL BEAT YOU ZIM!! I'LL EXPOSE YOU!! I'LL GET RECOGNITION!! I'LL GET FRIENDS!! I'LL GET MY MOM!! AND I'LL BEAT YOU ZIM!! I DON'T ACCEPT THE PLACE YOU STUCK ME IN!! I'M GETTING OUT ZIM!! I'LL FIND MY MOM!! YOU CAN'T KEEP ME HERE FOREVER!!"  
  
"Well," said a disembodied Zim, "I can't say I didn't try." Dib was left in the asylum, screaming and shouting and cussing until his voice broke, and then he screamed some more. Screaming at everyone and everything. Never stopping. Never relenting. Never accepting.  
  
END  
  
All characters © Nickelodean and Jhonen Vasquez (Z?). 


End file.
